BARRY ROSENBERG

Blame it on the Dwarf. Everyone else did even his mother, the local witch. Despised at home, Bogden left Europe for the 19th century gold rush in Australia. But very soon, he found himself in conflict with Jack, a red-haired miner.Matters became worse when the albino Dwarf found gold. Big Jack and his mates beat him up and left him for dead. Bogden, however, had enough of his mothers magic to survive. He returned to the camp at night and woke the drunken Jack just to stick a shovel into his throat. Cursing Jacks descendants, the Dwarf set fire to the miners tents and fled.Buying nearby land, Bogden cursed it to keep other people away. Naturally 150 years later, that was the place chosen for coal seam gas mining. Blame it on the Dwarf. Why else turn a food bowl into a wasteland?Sophie, an actress with a greenie theatre group, led the protest against the mine. But just days before she is to lead an important rally, she is kidnapped. By Red Jack, of course, who has started to manifest a dwarfish aura.Sophie, still in her costume as a modern Madame Butterfly, is hidden with a man obsessed with butterflies. Fortunately, the theatre group includes Thorn, a woodturner. Unusually, he can intuitively judge the depths of bowls, or other spaces, and this leads to Sophies rescue.Her rally is a success but the theatre group want justice. One of their members, Tubs, an ex-junkie, maintains contact with a former veteran who has become a security expert. With his help, justice happens.Finally, the thespians create a ritual and remove Bogdens curse from the land.

In India, Swami Goananda is known as a healer. Irena, who lives in Wollongong, Australia, is also developing healing powers. Wanting to improve, she decides to visit the Swami.But Goananda has a dark side. Through sex with his disciples, he steals their energy in order to prolong his own life. At first, Irena resists his glamour, but is eventually seduced by him. Aghast by what she has done, and certain that she is pregnant, she flees the ashram and returns home.Irena has a daughter, Holly. But not wanting her to be brought up close to followers of the Goananda, Irena moves north. Over the years, her healing ability increases as she learns an earth-based magic. This, however, makes her more sensitive to the psychic call of the Swami. She soon realises that this dark call is actually intended to draw Holly, now an adult..Irena realises there is only one way to save her daughter: return to India and confront the Swami. To give time for her earth-based magic to find roots in India, she takes an indirect route to the ashram. On her way, she also gathers local people who know the Swami is evil. Eventually, the two sides meet and engage in a ferocious psychic war.

A mysterious artefact.The power to reach across the galaxy.The power to change lives. Jonans indulgent life on Earth is upturned when he meets Yerudit, a remarkable woman from a distant colony. After an intense affair, Yerudit leaves Jonan to pursue a pilgrimage across the galaxy. He finds himself following her on his own journey of self-discovery: encountering enigmatic artefacts, pursued by a shadowy figure, and discovering a life he never realised he was missing. This novel combines romance with philosophy, strange alien vistas with quiet mindfulness, star travel technology with simple self-reliance. Through it all stands the Pillar, an inexplicable object that gives those who encounter it a glimpse of knowledge beyond human understanding. "5 stars. A fast paced and exciting adventure novel for fans of the typical romantic space opera, but with added bonuses of mystery and threat The twists are plentiful and the descriptions are literally out of this world, making this an immersive novel thats easy to enjoy. Rosenbergs inventiveness is matched with amusing and snappy dialogue that adds to the overall characterization of Jonan on his journey from a generally selfish person into a being of the galaxy. Overall, Id definitely recommend." K.C. Finn for Readers Favorite.

When Glide was born, a Neverman predicted great things for him. So how did he end up working as a pen pusher? Depressed and searching for something more to life, Glide gets much more than he bargained for when Newang the Nevermaker, an indigenous sorcerer, whisks him through a gateway to Auslan, a former paradise in desperate need of a hero. Here Glide finds a wicked witch; a beautiful princess trapped in Slowtime (think the office on a Friday afternoon, only worse); and a talking elephant wait, an elephant? Thats what happens to heroes around here.

A new Buddhist centre in Australia requires some ancient spiritual artefacts. Clay and Jade try to smuggle these artefacts out of Thailand. Yet Clay is framed and lands up in a Bangkok jail. An antique dealer, Bateson, promises to smuggle Clay out of Thailand for a fee. He keeps his promise but steals The Buddha Leaves. In retrieving them, Clay and Jade find themselves caught up in a world of drugs and Buddhist magic.

Swami Goananda lives in an ashram in India and is known as a healer. Irena, who lives in a small town south of Sydney, Australia, is also developing healing powers. Wanting to improve her ability, she takes the advice of a psychic group and decides to visit the Swami.Swami Goananda, however, has a dark side. He has sex with his disciples and in the process steals their energy so that he may prolong his own life. Irena, overwhelmed by his glamour, eventually allows herself to be seduced by him. Overwhelmed by what she has done, and instinctively knowing that she is pregnant, she flees the ashram and returns home to Australia.Irena has a daughter, Holly. But not wanting her to be brought up close to the psychic group that follows the Swami, Irena decides to move north to Queensland. As her daughter is growing up, Irena meets a man with indigenous contacts who teaches her an earth-based magic. This increases her own powers but, at the same time, it makes her more sensitive to the psychic call of the Swami. She soon realises that this siren call it is actually intended to draw Holly, her adult daughter, to the ashram in India.Irena finally decides that she has to fight fire with fire and this means going back to India to confront the Swami. In order to acquire the support of the country itself, she takes an indirect route to the ashram. By the time she is ready for the confrontation, Irena feels that she can draw energy from the land. In her travels, she also gathers people who realise the Swami is evil and will support her in her fight. Eventually, the two sides meet and engage in a psychic war.